Spoiler Highlight: Wan Shi Tong, Librarian in Competitive Formats

The preview season for hyperlink (Avatar: The Last Airbender) has begun, and unlike Spider-Man, the next Magic: The Gathering set is packed with flavor and cards that mechanically correspond to the narrative of the Nickelodeon animation.

Among these, the new Wan Shi Tong, Librarian stands out for the game's competitive formats, especially Modern, Legacy, and Timeless, where the Fetch Lands and other effects that search for cards in the deck, such as Green Sun’s Zenith and Urza’s Saga, are commonplace.

Furthermore, in formats like Standard and Pioneer, the new card is reminiscent of an old staple of both formats: Hydroid Krasis, but it exchanges the life gain and the possibility of playing multiple copies for flexibility in colors and the ability to play it at instant speed, making it a flexible enabler for Kaito, Bane of Nightmares which also benefits from Ninjutsu to generate card advantage.

Standard

At base, the new creature is a 1/1 with Flying and Flash that can be used at instant speed and gradually grows as the game progresses—if Dimir Midrange ran Faerie Mastermind last season and some versions even plays with Malcolm, Alluring Scoundrel, Wan Shi Tong is a rather obvious choice due to the functions it possesses both in generating value on its own, functioning as an effective finisher in the late game, and, of course, being able to reuse its ETB with Kaito, Bane of Nightmares.

Despite working in Tempo-based decks, the new card is also extremely flexible for other archetypes. The combination of "draw X" with Flash and a body could make it worthy of some testing or even decisive slots in Azorius Control or Jeskai Control decks, which naturally extend the game to the point of granting many draws and a huge body with Wan Shi Tong.

The flexibility in mana value and interaction with +1/+1 counters also means some testing in Simic Counters as another evasive threat on the battlefield and another way to maintain resource parity in grindy matchups.

Finally, Shi Tong's ability is an ETB effect, reusable with bounces like Sunpearl Kirin and Fear of Isolation, making it worthy of testing in blue-based Bounce variants, including the more Aggro versions with Cosmogrand Zenith, cheap creatures, and Warden of the Inner Sky.

Pioneer

Wan Shi Tong, Librarian seems to have much less space in Pioneer than in other formats. Its Metagame doesn't have many card-searching effects in decks to benefit from the static ability, and almost every blue archetype already has more effective ways to generate card advantage.

As in Standard, Dimir Midrange versions focused on the Ninja subtheme could benefit from it as a one-of or two-of for longer games, but these archetypes play much more for Tempo than for the late game, where the "mana sink" effects would make more sense.

Bounce is also an option, especially with This Town Ain’t Big Enough, but most of these archetypes—which are currently declining—tend to run Yorion, Sky Nomad to overwhelm the opponent with the ETBs of their cards, and Wan Shi Tong does nothing if reused without paying the cost.

Modern

Starting in Modern, effects that search for cards in decks become common, beginning with Fetch Lands, which almost every archetype runs, and when it doesn't, it will have some equivalent like Expedition Map.

In a vacuum, Wan Shi Tong becomes a punitive effect for almost all Modern archetypes, and its mana value fits into many decks with blue, but with some pertinent concessions regarding the slots where the card can fit: it's not a better card than most that archetypes like Dimir Frog or Jeskai/Esper Blink would use, and its mana requirements can be a problem against Blood Moon decks.

It's also possible to include it with the interaction between Phelia, Exuberant Shepherd and White Orchid Phantom to guarantee extra draws or permanent LD, and it's also possible to include some sub-optimal options for the current Metagame like Path to Exile and Ghost Quarter in the list of interactions.

Wan Shi Tong can be the ideal two-drop for some archetypes like Simic Ritual or even deserving of test slots in Blink decks, where it interacts poorly with Ephemerate but which can still protect it if necessary. However, we shouldn't underestimate how much it's possible to play around this card if our opponents aren't being too proactive, besides the fact that its usefulness compared to other two-drops in the format is relatively weak as the game progresses.

Legacy

The fact that Wan Shi Tong is a pitch for Force of Will is not irrelevant in a format like Legacy. Furthermore, we mentioned above how opponents can play around the new card just as they do with Wasteland in Legacy — except that, in this format, the two complement each other.

It's common to "save" Fetch Lands to crack them as needed and prevent a Wasteland from denying you an important resource — for practical purposes, every time your opponent saves a Wasteland, it's one less mana they use on their own turn — and the new creature can work together with the land to force opponents to crack Fetch Lands, since targeting their Dual Lands can leave them without mana if they refuse to search for other lands and generate card advantage for you.

Timeless

Timeless exists in a middle ground between Modern and Legacy with the legality of things that are restricted even in Vintage, and the usefulness of Wan Shi Tong in the format is quite similar to its use in Legacy since Strip Mine is one of the most played lands and has the same role that Wasteland has in Legacy, except with more abrangence.

Its challenge, however, is that blue isn't one of the hottest colors in the format today without being in a combo shell like Show and Tell, but that could change with the reprint of Force of Negation in Avatar's Special Guests, which finally offers an effective way to interact with combo and/or explosive plays while allowing you to be proactive and still have resources to deal with your opponent's turn.

Flash also matters in this equation for the same reason. Wan Shi Tong allows holding onto Mana Drain, seeing what your opponent does, and then casting it, and even if a 1/1 with Flying and Vigilance doesn't do much, its potential to grow and generate extra draws with an effect so common in the format can, in part, be compared to Orcish Bowmasters, except for the cost restrictions and legendary subtype that doesn't allow stacking copies on the board.

Despite being only in the first week, Avatar has already shown some new cards with considerable potential. Most of them will probably end up in Standard and Commander decks, but others may reach the top of the game's power level chain — Wan Shi Tong, Librarian is one of those cases, as, like other cards, it punishes a category of effect natural in the course of matches in eternal formats.